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Colorado River Cutbacks Arizona, California, and Nevada must cut Colorado River water use by roughly 20% over the next two years under a federal plan proposed yesterday, as the nation's two largest reservoirs near record lows. See a map of the Colorado River Basin here. Lake Mead and Lake Powell fell this month to their lowest combined level since 1957, at 27% and 23% capacity, respectively. The plan is the first phase of a 10-year framework that allows cuts of up to 40% and imposes no mandatory reductions on the upper-basin states—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The lower basin used 6.5 million of the river's 13.1 million acre-feet annually from 2020 to 2024, versus the upper basin's 3.8 million. Lake Mead is about 146 feet above "dead pool," where water can no longer flow through a dam by gravity. Lake Powell is about 152 feet above the threshold. Some 40 million people across the US and northwestern Mexico depend on the river. See real-time reservoir levels and track storage across hundreds of US reservoirs.

Iran strikes tankers under US escort in Hormuz strait as Trump gathers cabinet to discuss war Energy prices have soared again since fighting between US and Iran resumed two weeks ago as conflict spreads across Middle East https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/31/iran-strikes-tankers-us-escort-hormuz-strait-trump-gathers-cabinet?

ECB official warns climate crisis poses growing threat to ‘core financial stability’ A senior policymaker at the European Central Bank has said the climate emergency and the breakdown of nature poses a dramatically growing risk to the global economy. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/01/ecb-climate-wildfires-global-economy-stability?

Infantino abandons plans to sell World Cup profits to private equity following massive pushback GENEVA (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino is abandoning his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity after receiving pushback from all corners of the soccer world. https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-infantino-fifa-investors-8aba1b529f220c27d02d326e8fd9e377?

Justice Department moves to drop case against ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department moved Friday to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying evidence prosecutors had recently received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame. https://apnews.com/article/reflecting-pool-damage-olympian-hearn-trump-21d997b5b55e6adf01862d7c5292476d? ps:Of course they had to, it was the biggest crock of bull manure!!!!!

A discarded SpaceX rocket is on a high-speed collision course with the moon A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago. Read More.

Ex-deputy who shot Sonya Massey is denied a request for medical release from prison A former Illinois sheriff’s deputy won't get an early medical release from his two-decade prison sentence for killing Sonya Massey inside her home after the Black woman called 911 about a possible prowler, state officials decided Friday. Read More. Jurors in Lindsay Clancy's trial visit the home where she killed her children Jurors walked through the Massachusetts home where Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children, a rare visit Friday that let them see firsthand the place where an outwardly ordinary family life unraveled into tragedy. Read More.

France's forest management may need to change to prevent more wildfires in Les Landes History keeps repeating itself in the smoldering forests of southwest France, now ash-covered and charred. Read More.

Regulators propose overhaul to law governing how banks lend to low-and-middle income communities The Trump Administration has announced an overhaul to the rules governing a critical piece of Civil Rights-era legislation, most notably a reduction in the number of banks that will need to fully comply with the law. Read More. Camp David, the president's rustic Maryland mountain retreat, through the years President Donald Trump left behind the gold-accented White House on Friday for a Cabinet meeting at rustic Camp David in Maryland's mountains. Read More.

Blinking on Blanche View in browser Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump blared yesterday on social media, “is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” But the rest of the presidential missive told a very different story. Blanche’s nomination to run the Justice Department has stalled over objections from outgoing Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn to a settlement between Trump and the IRS that would create a $1.8 billion slush fund for rewarding Trump’s political supporters, including those convicted of crimes on January 6, 2021. Tillis and Cornyn have demanded that Blanche deliver written guarantees that the fund would not proceed, and they remain unsatisfied with what they’ve received. Although a deal may still be struck, Trump wrote in his post that he had “no objection to temporarily withdrawing” Blanche’s nomination “and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.” The senators met with Blanche last night and could still waver, and Trump could still change his mind, but the president this morning posted a strong defense of the slush fund and attacked Cornyn. “John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called ‘Fund,’ which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas,” he wrote. “Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as U.S. Attorney General.” This moment of peril for Blanche’s nomination reveals three things: First, dissident Republicans really can push Trump around if they want to; second, Trump (as usual) seemingly has no strategy or contingency plan to save the nomination; and third, Trump apparently cares more about preserving the slush fund than he does about Todd Blanche. If Trump really valued Blanche, then reaching an agreement with Cornyn and Tillis would be easy: He’d just have to give up on the fund. Not only is the planned payout politically toxic, but courts may prohibit it anyway. The fund emerges from a settlement in a case filed by Trump against the federal government over a leak of his personal tax returns. In exchange for dropping the case, the government agreed to grant Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits and to create a $1.8 billion pot of money for supposed victims of a “weaponized” federal government, such as people prosecuted for their role in the January 6 insurrection. The fund is an abomination for several reasons, as my colleague Jonathan Chait wrote when it was announced. The deal was struck between Trump as plaintiff and Trump as head of the executive branch—an arrangement a federal judge later said is improper. It gives the president an opportunity to direct taxpayer money to his allies and supporters—and specifically people who attempted to subvert the 2020 election and rioted at the U.S. Capitol. One federal judge, Leonie Brinkema, is currently blocking the fund’s creation, and another, Kathleen Williams, concluded that the settlement was improper self-dealing and harshly criticized Blanche’s role in negotiating the deal as acting attorney general. Blanche himself told senators that the money wouldn’t be paid out, but as my colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick reported in June, administration officials said privately that it wasn’t really dead. That helps explain why Brinkema has requested a sworn statement from Blanche about the demise of the fund, and why Cornyn (who lost a GOP primary in May) and Tillis (who decided to retire) have said they want written assurances from Blanche. By announcing that he would rather pull Blanche’s nomination, even temporarily, than allow Blanche or any other administration official to provide such assurances, Trump has implicitly confirmed that he has no intention of letting go of the fund. His statement also undercuts Blanche’s credibility with senators because it shows that Blanche was either not telling the truth or was making a promise he couldn’t keep when he said earlier that the fund wouldn’t proceed. The idea of renominating Blanche later on may well be a feint anyway, since Trump hates to ever admit defeat, but it’s peculiar. Trump’s unstated premise is that he will have a more favorable Senate in 2027, which is questionable. Cornyn and Tillis are currently preventing Blanche’s nomination from advancing out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and neither man will be on that panel come January. But most forecasts suggest that Democrats will gain ground in the Senate in the midterm elections, and possibly even win a narrow edge in the chamber. Either way, Blanche will still have a hard time getting the necessary votes for confirmation next year. That is especially true because Trump’s power over Republican senators appears to be on the wane. For years, senators have trash-talked Trump privately, but meekly followed him in public. Tillis and especially Cornyn made their hesitations about Blanche public weeks ago, and the White House seems to have wagered that they would simply give in as GOP members have in the past. (The administration may have underestimated Cornyn’s taste for revenge against a president who endorsed his opponent in the primary.) At the same time, Trump has been unable to persuade all Republican senators to back the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to present proof of citizenship to vote, and they have shrugged off his demands to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass it. After all, they know that they could be in the minority within six months. What made Blanche attractive to Trump as an attorney general was not his legal acumen but his eagerness as an enabler. Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, began in the administration as deputy attorney general. Attorney General Pam Bondi was willing to destroy many of the boundaries keeping politics out of the Justice Department, and she pursued many of Trump’s projects of political retribution, but she fell out of favor after some of them stalled and was soon asked to resign. When Blanche became acting attorney general in April, he set out to fulfill Trump’s desires with zeal. That was enough to win Blanche a nomination to hold the job permanently, but it also made his path to confirmation more perilous. Now Trump has little reason to fight for his nomination. Since Blanche is already deputy attorney general, the president can leave Blanche as acting attorney general indefinitely, even without confirmation. That would surely be a disappointment to Blanche, who worked so hard to win Trump’s favor, but it’s an easy calculation for Trump: Why would he give up a $1.8 billion pot of money when he already has a lackey in place? Related: Does Todd Blanche have a red line? The biggest takeaway from Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing

🔎 Friday Focus: Lawler vs. Conley 🔬 We're zooming in on battleground races ahead of the midterms. This week, we're focused on NY-17, where GOP Rep. Mike Lawler is defending a suburban swing seat that both parties view as critical to winning the majority. Why it matters: New York's 17th District is one of a handful of House races likely to determine which party controls the chamber next year. ⚡️ Lawler is one of just eight House Republicans representing a district Kamala Harris carried in 2024, making his race a key test of whether the GOP can continue winning in blue-leaning suburbs. And this time, Lawler is facing a formidable challenge with Democrat Cait Conley, an Army veteran and former national security official. The district spans New York City's northern suburbs in Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester counties. 💰 Conley narrowly outraised Lawler in the second quarter of this year, bringing in $1.7 million to Lawler's $1.4 million. Lawler was one of 25 GOP incumbents outraised by a Democratic challenger last quarter. But he still holds a commanding financial edge, ending June with $4.8 million in cash on hand compared with Conley's $1.3 million. 📺 Lawler is launching his first $5 million ad buy in August, according to his campaign. The race is expected to be among the most expensive House contests in the country. Zoom in: Lawler led Conley by 5 percentage points in a recent poll, and had an even bigger lead among independent voters: 54% to Conley's 39%. ⚖️ The University of Virginia's Center for Politics shifted the race yesterday from "Leans Republican" to "Toss-up," matching the Cook Political Report's rating. Between the lines: Lawler's challenge will be assembling the same coalition that carried him to victory twice: Republicans, independents and a slice of Democratic voters. Trump has already put his political weight behind Lawler, campaigning with him in the district in May and highlighting his role in expanding the SALT deduction — a key issue for suburban New York voters. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) will head to New York to campaign with the state's candidates, including Lawler, we previously reported. Half a dozen Cabinet secretaries have also campaigned in the district this year, with more expected to come. The bottom line: If Republicans can hold the seat, they're probably keeping the majority. If Democrats flip it, they're likely on the path to taking the gavel. — Kate Santaliz

🤕 Republicans' recess headache Senate Republicans can't wait to get out of town. 🐑 Why it matters: But at least one senator will have to be the sacrificial lamb, presiding over what is called a "pro forma session," while MAGA rages online. And therein lies a very 2026, very GOP problem. In the chair and on camera, the presiding lawmaker can quickly become the avatar of a Senate that's unwilling or unable to pass the president's agenda. Cue the online anger. 🥱 C-SPAN2 used to put even procedural nerds to sleep in the summer. Now it's MAGA rage bait. 🎧 What we're hearing: Because of the online blowback, some senators are increasingly anxious about being in the chair for what would usually be short, uneventful sessions, multiple GOP Senate sources told us this week. They have some reason for their anxiety. 🚨 "DISGUSTING! Missouri Senator JOSH HAWLEY Gavels in Pro-Forma Session to Block Trump from Making Recess Appointments," the Gateway Pundit posted in June. How it works: Senators presiding are not personally deciding on a pro forma session. They are just filling a scheduled slot, taking their turn at a job no one is clamoring to do. But good luck explaining that to MAGA influencers, who are turning the arcane, behind-the-scenes Senate procedure into a vehicle for their anger and frustration that Trump's agenda isn't sailing through the Senate. 🌎 Zoom out: Trump and his online allies have increasingly been pressuring the Senate to skip the five-week August break scheduled to begin at the end of next week unless the SAVE America Act is passed. They've blasted out the mechanics of the unanimous-consent agreements leaders routinely use to arrange the break. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has led the charge, much to the chagrin of many of his colleagues. 💣 Lee has vowed to object to any unanimous consent agreement to recess next week, which could force senators to go on the record in a more formal vote on whether to leave town. Online accounts with large conservative followings are keeping tallies of senators who say they are willing to stay in session to work on SAVE — though it's unclear whether they all would formally object to the break. Zoom in: The August break is typically prime time for members to meet with constituents and campaign, especially in an election year. 🔥 This year, Trump and prominent conservative accounts are poised to torch Senate Republicans for taking a "vacation" without delivering key priorities on his agenda. Since 2007, majorities under both parties have scheduled pro forma sessions during long breaks to keep the chamber technically in session and prevent the president from making recess appointments. The strategy was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2014. 🤔 The intrigue: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has not presided over a pro forma session since skipping an assigned April turn in protest of the Homeland Security funding package, sources familiar with the matter tell us. Scott frequently advocates for longer workweeks. ⏰ Flashback: It's not the first time the August break has been politically weaponized. In 2018, then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) canceled most of the recess, citing Democratic obstruction of Trump nominees. It also conveniently kept vulnerable Democratic senators from campaigning in their states. At the time, 10 Democrats were fighting for reelection in states Trump had won, compared to just one Republican in a state Hillary Clinton had won. — Stef W. Kight

📚 1 for the road: "Odyssey" hot at libraries Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" is fueling a library run on Homer's epic, Axios' Mike D'Onofrio reports. One of the most in-demand editions: University of Pennsylvania professor Emily Wilson's translation, which Nolan credited with inspiring his film. 🤯 Zoom in: The Philadelphia Free Library has 100 holds for 13 print copies of Wilson's book. The ebook waitlist has 400+ holds. Go deeper.

Fresh plea for blood donors Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios The American Red Cross says more blood donors are still needed even after "tens of thousands" of people donated this week, Axios' Herb Scribner reports. The U.S. is facing a blood supply crisis that could last the entire summer, potentially delaying surgeries, trauma care and other treatments. 🏥 Red Cross spokesperson Daniel Parra tells Axios: "While we are grateful to all who have rolled up a sleeve this summer to save lives, we still need more donors to give in the coming weeks to not only rebuild the blood supply but also help sustain a stable blood supply through the summer." How to help.

Look ma, no hands — or pedals A Zoox robotaxi with no steering wheel drives down the Las Vegas Strip yesterday. Photo: Ty ONeil/AP Regulators are clearing the way for robotaxis without steering wheels or even brake pedals. 🚙 Zoox, an Amazon-owned robotaxi company, got federal approval yesterday to charge customers for rides in its unusual autonomous cars, which have four inward-facing seats and no steering wheel, AP reports. It still needs state and local approval to start charging riders. Zoox has offered free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco since last year. Chloe Huu, from Ann Arbor, Mich., said after taking a Zoox ride yesterday in Vegas: "It's kind of scary at first, but when I just got used to it, it's really cool and chilling." 🛞 The big picture: Most car safety rules were written decades ago, with the assumption that there would always be a human behind the wheel. But Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, argues that in a robotaxi, you don't need steering wheels, windshield wipers or side-view mirrors. Passengers load into a Zoox robotaxi in Las Vegas yesterday. Photo: Ty ONeil/AP 🤔 Yes, but: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an alliance of consumer and business groups, wants more evidence that vehicles can be safe without standard controls. Peter Kurdock, the group's general counsel, said: "Lots of promises, lots of glossy language, lots of 'We believe, we think we'll do this.' Yet there really was no data behind the promises." What's next: NHTSA recently proposed allowing robotaxis to operate without brake pedals, but that's still pending. Morrison said his agency wants to update the regulations for fully autonomous vehicles while still acting as the "cop on the beat to make sure that this is being done right." Go deeper.

Rare Judean Pillar Figurine Discovery from Jerusalem A remarkable discovery in Jerusalem sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic artifact types from Iron Age Judah: the Judean Pillar Figurine. These feminine figurines occur in two principal types: with heads that are modeled by hand or through the use of an open-faced mold. Over a thousand figurine pieces have been recovered from sites in eighth- through sixth-century BCE Judah—comprised of body fragments, both types of head, and less often, whole figurines—yet archaeologists have only found a handful of molds. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/judean-pillar-figurine-jerusalem/?

Why Massachusetts Should Not Opt-In to the Federal School Voucher Program Massachusetts has established itself as a state with a top-tier public education system, whose mission has been to serve all students no matter their demographics. https://massbudget.org/2026/07/10/why-massachusetts-should-not-opt-in-to-the-federal-school-voucher-program/?

Unions are key to high-quality public education Our recent report asks a bold question: What would the United States look like if we tripled union membership? We find a range of economic and social benefits—such as higher wages, greater access to health insurance, and a stronger democracy. This post examines another social good generated by unions: strong investment in public education. https://www.epi.org/blog/unions-are-key-to-high-quality-public-education/? The case for tripling union membership Imagine union membership tripling in the United States. It may sound radical—if you’ve forgotten history. In fact, more than 1 in 3 private-sector workers belonged to a union in the 1950s. The results? Wages grew in tandem with the economy. The middle class thrived. Black-white wage gaps shrank. Broadly shared economic growth was a reality, not an aspiration. That’s because when workers have bargaining power, they win better wages, benefits, and working conditions. This report shines a light on what we stand to win if we rebuild union power. https://www.epi.org/publication/the-case-for-tripling-union-membership-how-rebuilding-union-power-would-strengthen-workers-the-economy-and-our-democracy/?

Trump’s Smithsonian Crackdown Could Be Its Best Promotion Yet Trump’s effort to dumb down history and shave off the rough spots is not what we, the people, want. Another D.C. institution in the culture war crosshairs. The Smithsonian has been a target of the Trump administration for over a year now, since an executive order in March 2025 put Vice President JD Vance in charge of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and eliminating “divisive race-centered ideology.” Republicans are scapegoating Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian’s history museum, who faced hostile questions from lawmakers about an exhibit on girlhood which dared to include a transgender girl, and for sullying Benjamin Franklin’s reputation by suggesting that, in addition to family and friends, he might have used “indentured servants and enslaved people in his household” to test his experiments, “although we may never know for certain.” The first woman to lead the history museum, Hartig refused to apologize for any of the exhibits she oversaw and denied she is trying to “rewrite history” during a contentious congressional hearing. She said the museum’s focus is “scholarship, accuracy, independence and nonpartisanship,” and that it does not take sides in America’s political debates. She said at least half a dozen times, “I love this country unconditionally.” None of it mattered. Just days later, Trump ordered the National Park Service to place signs along sidewalks and walkways leading to the history museum warning the public about the danger of “Ideological Capture.” A 162-page report issued by the White House on July 4 accused the museum’s leadership of engaging in “anti-White activism,” “illegal alien activism,” and “transgender activism.” Trump cut to the chase in a Truth Social post, declaring of the museum that there’s too much about “how bad Slavery was,” he wrote. “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.” (As the New York Times has reported, Trump’s State Department this week unveiled the exhibit “Passport to Patriotism” in honor of America’s semiquincentennial. “We don’t need professional revisionists to dictate our nation’s history to us; we all know what our flag stands for, who our founding fathers are, and the exhibition will speak for itself,” a State Department spokesperson told the Times.) True, the Smithsonian has worked hard to include everybody in America’s story. And for those who prefer a literal ‘whitewashing’ of that story, it’s bound to be disappointing. Still, the top exhibits at the history museum include the original copy of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Thomas Jefferson’s desk, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Mister Rogers’ sweater, and a collection of protest signs—not one of them being anti-Trump. What’s there not to like?The administration’s reaction is “very reflexive and very uneducated,” Rebeccah Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, told the Daily Beast. (The all-volunteer organization is focused on protecting historic buildings and sites through advocacy and education.) “The Smithsonian has done a very good job presenting information… They’ve covered all the historical sites to celebrate the collective history of the U.S. and not just one demographic.” Hartig’s obvious unease before a panel of Republicans thirsty for elite, academic blood is similar to what the presidents of Columbia and Harvard faced last year when they testified about antisemitism on their campuses. That didn’t end well for them. And if the past is prologue, Hartig’s job is likely on the line along with her boss, Lonnie Bunch, the current Secretary of the Smithsonian—and the first Black man to hold the position. He helped create and then led the African-American museum before being named to the top job. He now walks a tightrope Trump is jiggling, maintaining that the American experience is being portrayed by the Smithsonian fairly and fully, while saying there’s always room for improvement. We don’t know yet what the Park Service signs will say, but they’re expected to warn visitors about “inaccurate information.” (The Parks Service did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.) At the same time, this kind of spectacle is likely to heighten interest in the work that’s being critiqued. The Smithsonian museums, and there are 21 of them plus the National Zoo, don’t lack for visitors to begin with, and surely just as tourists now get their picture taken with National Guardsmen and women still patrolling D.C., a photo next to a sign warning of the dangers of pink “Latina Power” baseball caps will be the money shot for visitors wanting to show they braved the political storm. And admission is free! “Whenever you really try and tell people what they should know about, that’s when it backfires. People become more interested in the information you’re trying to censor,” added Miller. Angelo Villagomez, a Senior Fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, labeled Bunch and Hartig heroes. “The reason these signs are going up is they haven’t rolled over,” he told the Daily Beast. They’re not fighting out loud, but they’re holding their own—and that’s good for now. “The same people who are complaining about historical references in the “Odyssey” blockbuster movie don’t want to see Black people in our history or on our theater screens or on our public lands,” he said, noting that a third of the exhibits on public lands across the country have been flagged for amending or removal because they mention Black History, Indigenous people, or science. At the White House Visitors Center, an exhibit was flagged for noting President Warren Harding served cocktails during Prohibition. At Fort Sumter, a sign was removed for saying rising sea levels threatened the historic site. At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia—steps from where the Declaration of Independence was signed—a sign detailing the nine enslaved people George Washington brought from Mount Vernon to serve at the President’s House Site was removed, erasing from public view the lives of people who made his presidency possible. At Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, language describing how American Indian boarding schools “violently erased cultural identities and language in the children they were entrusted to educate” was flagged for revision. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe had specifically requested this language and is opposed to its changing. I could go on, and on.“The reason we are studying history is to help us understand today,” Villagomez concluded. Build it, and they will come is a common history lesson; in this case, it might better be said, tear it down and people will come. Unlike the Kennedy Center, which Trump has destroyed and now stands almost vacant from neglect, the Smithsonian is at a crossroads where it can still turn back the worst of Trump’s instincts. It has the power of a product that is seen by visitors from across the country who can decide for themselves who’s telling the truth about a changing world. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-smithsonian-crackdown-could-be-its-best-promotion-yet/? ps:Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic administration!!!!!

Trump Slapped Down in Court Defeat Over 54-Minute Firing The DOJ has failed to boot a judge from a case brought by a prosecutor Trump fired less than an hour after he landed the job. Donald Trump has been slapped down by an Obama-appointed federal judge the president had tried to boot from overseeing a case against him. Roger Rogoff, 57, was unanimously handed the job of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington by the district’s 17 federal judges on July 15—and axed by Trump, 80, just 54 minutes after being sworn in. His appointment would have made him the boss of Trump’s own man in Seattle. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi installed Charles Neil Floyd, a Tacoma immigration judge, at the office’s helm in September. Trump never asked the Senate to confirm Floyd, and when Floyd’s interim term lapsed in February, the Justice Department simply made him first assistant U.S. attorney for the district and left the top job vacant, leaving him in charge by default. Rogoff sued six days after his axing, in the first case of its kind testing whether a president can fire a prosecutor lawfully installed by the courts. Because Seattle’s own judges made the appointment, the case could not stay with any of them, the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp, reported. The first judge assigned, George W. Bush appointee Ricardo Martinez, recused himself, and the lawsuit passed to Stanley Bastian, 68—chief judge in Washington’s Eastern District, an Obama pick confirmed 95-0 by the Senate—under a standing Ninth Circuit designation letting outside judges sit in the district, court records show. The DOJ wasn’t happy. Its lawyers filed a motion demanding the Ninth Circuit reassign the case—or, failing that, that Bastian recuse himself over his sideline as a regular visiting judge in Seattle. Bastian’s answer, delivered Thursday without so much as an oral argument, was a flat no. The government offered “no binding authority” requiring him to step aside, he wrote in the three-page order, noting drily that the defendants considered the reassignment “somehow improper.” He added that he played no part in hiring Rogoff and has no hand in running the Seattle court—then quoted the oath he swore to “administer justice without respect to persons,” and promised to honor it in full. The administration insists the firing was lawful. “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X the day Rogoff was fired. A DOJ spokesperson said the move was “wholly within the President’s authority.” But courts keep ruling against the administration’s games over who runs prosecutors’ offices. In November, Clinton appointee Cameron Currie tossed the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James, ruling Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully installed in Virginia. Obama appointee Matthew Brann ruled Trump’s ex-personal lawyer Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as New Jersey’s top prosecutor—a finding upheld on appeal in December—and in March, Brann ruled the trio installed to replace her was serving unlawfully too. Rogoff, who says Trump’s actions “violate the law,” is now asking Bastian to order him back into the job—meaning the administration’s fate in the case rests with the judge it just tried, and failed, to remove. PunchUp has contacted the Justice Department, the White House, and Rogoff’s legal team for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-justice-department-slapped-down-in-court-defeat-over-54-minute-firing-of-roger-rogoff/?

Senior FIFA executive says staff were deceived over Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan GENEVA (AP) — FIFA’s chief operating officer said its staff were deceived by their president Gianni Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan, and suggested on Friday the project must not go ahead. https://apnews.com/article/cordeiro-infantino-fifa-executive-world-cup-4cff20f6e2dda925e6d5395b56dcf9ab?

2 mosques in the West Bank are set on fire during a deadly surge in settler violence TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two mosques in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were set on fire overnight in an apparent Israeli settler attack, officials said Sunday, after a spate of deadly violence that killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers. https://apnews.com/article/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-mosques-5df1ad919914ceca2678c335c7d13183?

A rare look inside Tibet, 75 years after what China calls a 'peaceful liberation' This year marks the 75th anniversary of what China calls the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet in 1951, which critics describe as an invasion that has widely curtailed the rights and culture of Tibetans. The Associated Press last week joined a government-organized trip to the autonomous region, where journalists visited palaces, temples, tourist sites, an eldercare center and local businesses. Read more. Why this matters: Foreigners face tight restrictions on traveling to Tibet, a remote, high-altitude region also known for its Buddhist faith and snow-capped mountains. Government officials accompanied AP journalists during the media trip to sites that authorities selected in advance. AP journalists were not free to move around or conduct reporting independently. The AP retained full editorial control of its content. The visit offered a glimpse into daily lives of Tibetans and the growing number of Han Chinese residents. In the capital, Lhasa, visitors flock to the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple, some to sightsee and others to pray. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Prayers and celebrations for the Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday, in photos Penpa Tsering sworn in for a second term to lead Tibet’s government-in-exile Journey of a lifetime: A US teen Buddhist lama is now a monk studying in the Himalayan foothills

As progressives seek to take on inequality, some cite religion as a motivating factor Progressive Democratic politicians have won major electoral victories across the country in recent months amid growing frustrations surrounding inequality, affordability and potential threats to job security posed by artificial intelligence. As the economy becomes a flashpoint for the November midterms, many of these candidates and voters who support them are citing religion as a justification for their positions. Read more. Key points: Among these candidates is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in Michigan. He has been speaking about how his Muslim faith informs his progressive views. Though there are more Democrats unaffiliated with religion than Republicans, many people of faith do not see progressive ideologies like socialism as contradictory to their beliefs. They cite Black religious activists who were outspoken critics of capitalism, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and W. E. B. Du Bois, as models for how they think about the relationship between religion and politics. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorses Haley Stevens in Democratic US Senate primary Analysis: Have progressives peaked? The next few weeks will be crucial in Democrats' tug-of-war 3 Democratic pastors in Iowa are running for Congress, a snapshot of a national trend